After interacting with CEOs of e-retail platforms, Piyush Goyel, Commerce and Industry Minister of India sought an update to liquefy the trade constrains

The nationwide lockdown was announced on March 22 and it almost took five more days for the celebrated to stand on their own feet and revive the operations. Back on Thursday, March 27, Commerce and Industry Minister of India, Piyush Goyal, attended a virtual video conference with the CEOs of Flipkart, Snapdeal, BigBasket, Delhivery, Amazon and others to hear-out the bouts. Every executive asserted that previously the issues were confined to lack of autorotation to carry out the operations, but now there are many other issues which need to be addressed.

The problem placed on the deck was acute shortage of manpower to supply the deliverables to the doorstep. Some attendants expressed to expedite channels for trucks and appealed to issue electronic passes to enter the state borders. On the other hand, the suppliers are gradually running out of supplies and asked the minister to expedite the licensing process and allow them to stock food and pharmaceutical supplies in improving the availability of the deliverables.

He took the charge to handle the logistic providers & large retailers, for a week into the 21 days lockdown, for easy dispatch of the essential goods from the concerned distributors

Here, the issue about which items the e-Commerce firms will be allowed to deliver as essentials is still pending from the Home Ministry and asked DPIIT and Ministry of Commerce to pass a confirmed list.

The problems faced by the supply chain were minutely listed by Piyush at the conference and after a wait for four more days, on Tuesday, March 31, 2020, he announced to stock improvements in the e-Commerce platforms. He promises to liquefy the constrains and took the charge to handle the logistic providers & large retailers, for a week into the 21 days lockdown, for easy dispatch of the essential goods from the concerned distributors. The minister even stated the things are improving, but slowly; now it’s high time to move things faster.

Piyush’s statement was most comforting for the e-Commerce dealers who were counting losses for a long time due to a sudden fall in the consumer market. The e-Commerce companies were forced to stop the supply as the local dealers indiscriminately were shutting down operations, despite of the government notification that essential services will be ongoing. With government support, the companies are gradually gaining ground and as Piyush has taken up the responsibility, they are hoping for faster reforms in the sector.